'Black shirts' in Khalde: Hezbollah message or innocent celebration?

Videos and pictures of over 100 black-clad young people outside a restaurant in Khalde have sparked concern in the country, hours before a crucial cabinet session that will discuss the thorny issue of Hezbollah’s disarmament.

But the restaurant’s administration confirmed to Al-Jadeed TV that the gathering was to celebrate reaching a certain number of followers on social media.

The footage also shows celebratory balloons outside the restaurant in addition to buses, an army vehicle and another belonging to the Internal Security Forces or municipal police.

Sources close to the restaurant owner meanwhile told Naharnet that the young people in the footage are restaurant workers who came from its various branches and that their official uniform is black-colored.

The “black shirts” show of force refers to the unarmed, black-clad march that Hezbollah organized on February 18, 2011, which was widely seen as a message to Druze leader Walid Jumblat, who promptly shifted his stance and abandoned his alliance with then-Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

Jumblat, aware of his minority community’s vulnerable position and seeking to protect his leadership, decided then to support Najib Mikati, Hezbollah's preferred candidate for the premiership.

The move marked a significant change in Jumblat's position, as he had previously maintained a friendship with Hariri despite leaving the March 14 alliance in 2009.